WINSTED >> While the Board of Selectmen had harsh words for town manager Dale Martin during his annual performance review, the board took no action on Martin's status during a special meeting on Wednesday.

"Thank you for your candor," said Martin after the review.

Martin was praised for his communications with the Board of Selectmen, although he was criticized for his lack of communication with the board regarding the town's finances. Those finances were discussed in an executive session following the performance review.

"I think, like anything else in this world, everything revolves around money," said Selectman Ken Fracasso. "If we don't have a CEO who has a full understanding of financial responsibilities, we're behind the 8 ball."

Originally, the Board of Selectmen had decided to hold Martin's performance review on Wednesday. But following the board's Jan. 7 meeting, Fracasso had requested to hold a special meeting on Jan. 12 to discuss possibly firing Martin. That meeting, as well as a Jan. 11 meeting to discuss hiring a financial liaison to the Selectmen, was canceled after town attorney Kevin Nelligan brought up issues with the town's audit.

"When we realized we were getting low on cash," Fracasso said, "we should have gotten weekly updates, not monthly."

Winsted's general fund had dipped dangerously low over recent months, and the cash crisis came to a head at the Jan. 7 Board of Selectmen meeting. The announcement that the town has begun receiving tax revenues at a faster clip than expected -- 63 percent of the town's taxes have already come in, according to Winchester mayor Maryann Welcome -- but Fracasso said that the town would run out of money by the end of the fiscal year without a supplemental tax.

"A professional town manager would have looked at all the financial obligations first," said Fracasso. "We fell behind right from the beginning."

Firing Martin had been perceived as a partisan issue, as Fracasso had called for the special meeting on Jan. 12. Notably, Second Selectman Candy Perez deferred until after the rest of the board had spoken, anticipating Fracasso's remarks.

"I think I'd like to hear from Ken," said Perez. "He had a lot of things to say when he wanted to call for the meeting."

Selectman Glenn Albanesius, who is the board's other Republican, did not comment, beyond remarking that he hoped to continue his relationship with Martin. Selectman George Closson, who spoke at length during the review, said that Martin needed to improve his performance in several key fields, mostly involving financial matters.

Closson said that while Martin has communicated capably with the board, his grasp on the town's general fund has been lacking. During his comments, Closson noted that Martin was unable to answer Fracasso's questions regarding the town's general fund balance during Board of Selectmen meetings for months, saying that "as a result, the town manager does not have an understanding of the town's cash flow."

"Before all of this was going on in October," Closson said, "I think this really goes back to the prior period. You're really grasping it now."

Subsequently, Closson also said that Martin's ability to develop policies efficiently was also hamstrung by his lack of a grasp on Winsted's financial status. The financial issues plaguing Winsted have officially escalated into a criminal matter, according to town attorney Kevin Nelligan, who debriefed the Selectmen on the accounting problems in an executive session following Martin's performance review.

"Until you understand the problem," Closson asked, "how can you come up with a complete grasp of it?"

The board originally planned on holding Martin's performance evaluation in executive session, but Martin asked to hold the review in public. Martin had done the same at his previous performance review, and the town manager was praised for his decision to have the board discuss his performance to an open audience. However, Perez did state that "you need to communicate with this board more."

"When there is a vacuum that develops out there because there is not information out there to fill it, people have rushed to fill it with innuendo," Perez said. "Some communication would have alleviated that."